An Introduction to Google Analytics

What is Google Analytics? Why do I need it and how will it help my hospitality business?

Imagine this scenario. You have just started selling tickets for an upcoming event at your hotel, bar, restaurant or venue. You’ve published social media posts and done some marketing, that’s great! You want to sell more tickets, but what’s next?

Before you start spending more on marketing, ask yourself these questions;

Is the process of buying tickets too complicated?

Are potential guests making it to the website?

Can customers even find what they’re looking for?!

In reference to the last question, watch this video, by the Google Analytics team.

Google Analytics collects data on the visitors to your website. Most importantly, It can deliver business critical insights to help you answer all of the above questions and more!

Google Analytics is an incredibly powerful tool. Once correctly configured, you can analyse your hospitality websites sales funnel to find out if your website is working effectively and even how efficient your checkout experience is!

So why should I use Google Analytics?

In the age of data, it is becoming essential to understand where your customers are coming from. Using Google Analytics you will be able to gain insights into your potential guests, their preferences and behaviour. Being able to interpret this data will allow you to make informed business decisions, which can help you sell more tickets at your bar, restaurant, hotel or venue.

It also seamlessly integrates with many other online software services, such as Google Adwords, Mailchimp (for email marketing), EventBrite (events promotion) and Shopify (for eCommerce). For example, if you were to using Google Adwords to promote your hospitality business, then you can use Analytics to track sales from that channel.

However, there is so much data available in Google Analytics, that getting to the end result isn’t always easy. LeadDigital can help here. We are certified Google Analytics experts, our speciality is using Analytics to provide hospitality brands with a better understanding of potential guests and how to convert them into loyal customers.

What can Google Analytics show me?

Google Analytics collects data on every visitor to your website. Here is a list of some information that Google Analytics makes available:

Where visitors are coming from (website, social, email etc).

Real time visitors on your site.

Which countries, even city, visitors are from.

What type of devices visitors are using (mobile, tablet, desktop).

What page visitors are arriving and leaving on.

How long visitors are spending on your website.

Ecommerce sales down to product level.

You can set up detailed Multi-Channel Funnels, run data experiments and setup shopping cart and checkout funnels, it opens up a lot of opportunities for data-driven marketing.

What is data-driven marketing?

You are marketing a New Year’s Eve event at your hotel, venue, restaurant or bar using a variety of methods, including Content Marketing and Social Publishing. But how can you tell which one is more effective?

Using Google Analytics, you can see which method is producing more ticket sales and bookings through your hotel, venue, restaurant or bar’s website – allowing you to then focus marketing on that best performing channel. This will save you money by highlighting marketing channels that do not produce results.

This is data-driven marketing.

How will this help my hospitality business?

Google Analytics will allow you to have more visibility of where your online sales are coming from. This will enable you to dedicate your resources in the correct areas, which in the long run, will save you money. Using data-driven marketing, you will be able to sell more tickets at your bar, restaurant, hotel or venue.

Using data from Google Analytics, you can find out where your most engaged visitors are coming from, such as a great blog post or maybe a fantastic review? Data is key, and knowing how to interpret it will unlock new digital opportunities.

As a certified Google partner, LeadDigital have configured, managed and imported Google Analytics for many successful hospitality businesses. We use data-driven marketing to help companies sell more event tickets and increase room bookings.